St. Charles announces school restructuring

Catholic Herald Staff Report

1/14/14

Updated 11 a.m. ET, 1/17/2014

Rose McDermott, president of the St. Charles PTO, said that
parents met with Father Grinnell Jan. 16 to talk about the
possibility of keeping the school open and were told that the
decision would not be reversed.

Father Grinnell will hold a meeting with parents Jan. 23 to
answer questions and strategize about what to do next.

Parents should hear from parent leaders from each class and
also from the PTO.

Parents are concerned that they need to move quickly. Some
schools are holding open houses for St. Charles families in
addition to the ones scheduled for Catholic Schools Week.
(See below.)

The Office of Catholic Schools said that St. Rita also will
hold a meeting Jan. 21 for any St. Charles families who are
interested in attending next year. According to McDermott,
St. Agnes will have an open house Jan. 24.

McDermott said a group of parents plans to send a letter to
the diocese and Bishop Loverde to let them know how the
school closing is affecting them.

Original story at bottom.

See the follow-up story in our Jan. 23 Catholic Schools
Week issue.

Find out more

To learn more about the restructuring decision, call St.
Charles Borromeo Church at 703/527-5500.

To learn more about the St. Charles parents' meeting, call
PTO President Rose McDermott at 703/225-9972.

Outside of the events for Catholic Schools Week, St. Rita
School will host a meeting for any St. Charles families Jan.
21 at 8:15 a.m. in their development office. St. Agnes also
will have a meeting Jan. 24.

*Information from the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools.
Call the schools if you have specific questions.

Original story (below)

Father Horace H. "Tuck" Grinnell, pastor of St. Charles
Borromeo Church in Arlington, announced in a letter to
parents of St. Charles School, dated Jan. 13, the
restructuring of St. Charles School into the St. Charles
Early Childhood Center and the closing of the elementary and
middle school portion of the school this June.

Father Grinnell said that the decision was the result of the
growth of the current preschool program and the dwindling
enrollment in kindergarten through eighth grade.

"This decision was not arrived at lightly, especially
considering that St. Charles is the original Catholic school
in Arlington County and we just celebrated our 90th
anniversary," Father Grinnell wrote in the letter. "What
defeated us in the end was our low enrollment."

A private school needs to operate at 90 percent capacity to
be fully viable, according to national statistics. Father
Grinnell said that St. Charles began the school year at 52
percent capacity, or 117 students, in grades K through
eighth, which led to this difficult decision.

"No Catholic school can survive with such low numbers,"
Father Grinnell wrote. "As of November, the church has had to
subsidize the school $90,000, in addition to our regular
$15,600 monthly subsidy to the school. Financially, our
parish simply does not have the income to support the school
on this level."

Father Grinnell consulted with Sister Bernadette McManigal,
diocesan superintendent of schools, and Arlington Bishop Paul
S. Loverde, who agreed with the decision, the letter said.
The elementary and middle school will close at the end of
this school year, in June. He added that to continue giving
parishioners the benefits of a Catholic education, local
Catholic schools in the area have agreed to welcome St.
Charles students.

The preschool program at St. Charles has been successful over
the last 10 years, growing from one class with 12 students a
decade ago, to six classes with 92 students.

"I am sad now that I have to let the elementary and middle
school parts of St. Charles School go," Father Grinnell
wrote. "This is not the end of my support for Catholic
education. We will continue to minister to families and
children on the preschool level."

Read More

We will be expanding on this story soon.

Contact Maria-Pia Negro to share your opinions about this
story (mnegro@catholicherald.com or on Twitter
@MNegroACH).